Comparative Genomics of Aromatic Compounds Degradation Pathways in the Marine Roseobacter Clade

Members of the Roseobacter clade predominate in marine environments chronically polluted with hydrocarbons. Genomic analyses shows that these bacteria might possess up to six pathways for aromatic hydrocarbon degradation. Our hypothesis is that bacteria of the Roseobacter clade have genetic structures and strategies for degrading and tolerating hydrocarbons that are different from those of the well-known marine hydrocarbon degraders, and that these differences might underlay their predominance in chronically-polluted marine environments. We have analysed gene organization for aromatic hydrocarbon degradation pathways in all available genomes from the Roseobacter clade. We present here the results for the beta-ketoadipate pathway, the one most frequently found in Roseobacter genomes